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Category: Development

As a young boy, whenever I asked for the definition of something I was told to “look it up”. I hated that answer! It seemed so futile: if the task was to get something done and you knew the answer, why should I look it up?

It is clear to me now that I was told to look it up as a young boy to get me into the habit of being independent, of being able to fend for myself, and probably more importantly, not bothering busy people when the answer was available elsewhere.

I’m a little surprised by how little documentation there is on how to do this considering it is such a great way to make a code repository available to authorized users. I was unable to find any clear information on how to do this on subversion.tigris.org or on apache.org.

So, how do I know what name to use with the Apache configuration option –enable-MOD_NAME? The configure option –enable-mods-shared=all is a nice shortcut, but not very realistic in a real hosting environment. I’ve read in several places that you should only enable the modules you are really going to use and enabling all just seems like a bad idea. Can anyone help?

I understand why some people like the term “web 2.0” and its ilk. The problem is it leads people with little or no idea of the web to believe it is a product produced by a single organization and that it will have incremental “releases” when it is the exact opposite and evolves daily.

Furthermore, the concepts the term tries to define have been around since the beginning of computer mediated communication, so they’re not new, just redefined, and thus lead to additional confusion among novice web users. Fundamentals of usability state quite clearly that we should call things by their names, not invent new ones to sound cool, or just new. The only people who find value in marketing terms are marketers. The rest of us experience such terms as garbage and filter them out.
Also, since this is not a product produced by a single organization, the use of the numbers leads me to wonder where will the numbering stop?

If you are a web developer or work in the internet field, please, I beg you, don’t use “web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0” etc. when trying to define what you are doing. There are plenty of other techno-bable terms that probably suit your needs just as well that already exist. In my opinion, using such terms just makes you sound uninformed.

I feel a little better now that I got that off my chest…

PS: The link to the other techno-bable terms was the by product of the first Internet bubble. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that these terms continue to show up in today’s “web 2.0” world. Empty language = noise. Let’s try improving the signal-to-noise ratio and minimize the interference. My job is already hard enough.

Taking a break from writing and posting my own articles, I’d like to direct your attention to a post about the real meaning of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and a great example of the kind of smarmy people trying their best to steal your money. Would anybody ever really buy anything from the guy in the video? I almost feel sorry for him, almost. The bottom line is, SEO really just means good web design (something I’ve been trying to communicate ever since I arrived here).

For those of you wondering what I’m talking about, when we write software, we use systems that allow us to undo changes on hundreds of files at a time. This can be very useful when, in the middle of adding new features, you need to fix a security vulnerability but you don’t want to lose the work you’ve already done.

If you were building a house and had already laid the foundation, built the frame, ran the electric and plumbing, put up the drywall, and then realized you forgot the insullation between the foundation and the frame, it would be a small disaster.

Shelving code allows us to lift the entire house up off the ground so that we can put in the insullation, and then return the house to its rightful place without losing our work.